For many years, a one-write check writing and recording system has been marketed under the trademark Safeguard by the assignee of the present application. The Safeguard one-write system enables checks to be written and the written data simultaneously entered in a ledger. To this end, the Safeguard one-write system comprises a journal having clamping means, such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,003,502, extending lengthwise along the left-hand margin of the journal for releasably connecting a journal entry page having a series of horizontal lines onto which check data is to be transferred. Each check has a horizontal data line onto which data is to be written, such as the date, amount, and payee of the check, and on the reverse side of the check aligned with the data line, a carbon strip is provided. A series of checks overlay the journal page and are releasably secured by the clamping means in overlapping or shingled relation. The checks are shingled in such a manner that the carbon strips overlie the horizontal lines on the journal page. Thus, in writing a check, a bookkeeper simply enters the number, payee and date of the check on its obverse or top surface, and the entered information is immediately transferred via the carbon strip onto the journal page. Widthwise perforations at the left-hand margin of the check enable it to be torn from the journal after it has been written.
While the Safeguard one-write system has been used successfully for many years to provide an accurate record of checks as written from the journal, sometimes it is necessary for checks to be written in the field, i.e., at some location where the journal is not readily available. Customarily, a person does this by tearing several checks out of the journal and carrying them with him to the place where the checks are to be written. If important information on the checks such as the date, payee, check number and amount are lost or misrecorded, serious bookkeeping errors, not to mention the possibility of fraud, can occur. Moreover, even when records are kept properly it is necessary for the information to be given to the bookkeeper for hand-written entry on the journal page after the check writer returns to the office. It should be apparent, therefore, that a device which would facilitate the recording of field-written checks and the subsequent entry of such information into a checkbook journal is highly desirable.